Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral

Friday morning, we made our way down to the Dining Room of Wentworth House for a breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomato, toast, fruit, yoghurt, and in Bill's and my case, many cups of coffee. I was really dragging, but after four cups of very good coffee felt somewhat better. Does this make me a coffee drinker? Well, not really - as I only seem to drink it when I'm out somewhere..... : )

It was a fairly quick job to pack up our overnight stuff and head out to Stonehenge, using my handy iphone for our GPS. The drive was mainly rural roads - winding and curving, and Abby hung in there for a while, but just short of reaching Stonehenge we had to come to a screeching halt at the side of the road for her to puke. (carsick, not a bug this time)

You can just drive to the area and park in the parking lot and walk along the fenced road to see Stonehenge, but we decided to go ahead and pay to walk around inside the fenced area for at least this first time visiting it. I thought it was worth the money to do once - you get to walk around the entire circle area and get pictures from every angle and the audio tour etc. This time, Bill got to have his arm yanked out of socket by Philip, and Abby and I meandered around taking pictures to our heart's content.

Stonehenge seems to have quite a bit intact, and the information states that the sun rising on the stones at different times of year marks the seasons and so forth. This stone circle is over 5000 years old, and dug all around it is a trench and then earth is mounded behind the trench. It is quite a sight. We found it very amazing and spent about an hour or so there walking around the area.

Then it was back to the car to take a short detour south to Salisbury to see the cathedral there. Since it was lunch time, we stopped for some food first. We managed to find our way through the somewhat winding and not-at-all picturesque streets of Salisbury and finally to the parking area for the Cathedral. This particular cathedral has the tallest spire in all of England and is Gothic in architecture.

In the center of the back area of the cathedral is a baptism pool that is remarkable - the water is moving and flowing through it, but without a single ripple of movement so that is looks like black glass. Stained glass throughout is original to the building - built in the 1200s. The ceilings are painted with different patterns and colors throughout, and of course there are the requisite tombs of all sorts of people. The choir was rehearsing while we were there and they sounded great in that high church way. The garden cloister area was very pretty with the afternoon sun coming through and all the flowering bushes and so forth. Our visit into the Chapter House revealed detailed Medieval friezes carved around the whole room depicting all the stories from Genesis - most of them we were able to identify. We also got a good look at the original Magna Carta document, which is being displayed there under the watchful eye of an elderly lady!

We spent some time outside the West Front of the cathedral, letting the kids run around in the Cathedral Close (a huge lawn park area) and then decided to wind our way up to Avebury - another 5000 year old stone circle. This particular one is not like Stonehenge - it is very large and used to have around 400 stones around it, and the little village of Avebury sits within the circle. High Street runs right through the circle, and parts of the circle are now sheep pasture. This circle is also surrounded by a ditch backed with a very high embankment of chalk - now covered with earth. It was getting towards dusk while we were there, so our visit was fairly quick.

So when I went to do directions home on the iphone - no service!! Big problem with using the phone as a GPS out in the middle of nowhere. So we followed a route northward, hoping it would be a good general direction. As we hopefully wound our way north, I searched the guide book for a decent map, to no avail. The other difficulty with all this was that my iphone by now was getting low on battery power, so I had to be judicious in its use. Fortunately, after just a few miles, we came upon a good sized town and there had some food and got our route home loaded on the phone.

So that concluded our sight-seeing to Wessex county, a place that I think Caleb and I battled over quite a bit in Britannia, with me finally having to give in due to lack of reinforcements. After these trips I am almost always left with the feeling of "if only we had time to do such and such" or "I'd really like to go back and see this" - there is never enough time to really see everything of interest, and we are mainly hitting the big highlights as best as we can. I found Bath to be very beautiful and would love to spend more time there.

Bath

So this morning (Thursday), after packing some overnight stuff, snacks, activities, etc, we hit the road to Bath. For once, we didn't miss the A14 roundabout thingy, and thus had no unplanned detours. We hurtled down the M5, only stopping for a brief toilet break (and a Costa Coffee I must admit). We arrived in Bath around noon and looked carefully for a place to park. We found a short stay park at the Waitrose (grocery store) and zipped in there. Then it was off to see the sights.

Our first order of business was of course lunch, and we chose a small cafe after wandering a few streets. Thus fortified, we then began our walk up to see the famous curved Georgian house facades at the Circus and Royal Crescent. The streets of Bath are certainly beautiful and unique and the walk was an enjoyable one, save for Philip constantly tugging on our arms to get away. At the Royal Crescent, we went in the Georgian House Museum (?), a house that is fully outfitted to the period. This is at the top of the hill in Bath and overlooks Victoria Park and other parts of Bath.

(the Royal Crescent - elegant homes for the wealthy back in the 1700s)

We then meandered through streets lined with shops - which we wold have loved to go in, but I knew we didn't have time for that and for the Roman Baths and other city center sights. So, with a longing look at Space NK, L'Occitane, Monsoon, and in Bill's case, Orvis, off we went to get a quick snack and drink from the car. We got a new ticket good for another four hours and then headed to city center.

The next two hours were spent going through the Roman Bath Museum - very cool! They have excavated this site - a temple, and very extensive baths, several of which they keep filled. The water naturally runs into the baths at 115 degrees F - and I think 13 liters a minute. We had a plan - and it was a very good one, but did have some flaws. We thought we would get Philip to just "happen" to jump in the spa (bath), and OF COURSE we would have to jump in to rescue him. And if we just "happened" to have our swimsuits on at the time, well, what a coincidence!!!! The main flaw here was the weather - after all, it is Autumn and the outside temp might be in the high 50s or so. So how were we going to go about in our swimsuits without freezing? With no answer to this dilemma, we abandoned the plan, at least for now. I do have to say though, that without ANY coaching on our part whatsoever, Philip did come very close to getting in the spa. I feel very proud of my restraint in preventing him from getting in.

Bath does have a Thermae Spa that uses the natural springs, but they don't allow under 18s and it costs 55 pounds. Strike out there! Anyway, the excavation of the Roman site is really neat - with chunks from the temple - original stone floors - of course the original baths - some partial mosaics - and many other things recovered.

We emerged from the museum, after a quick glance into the Pump Room which was closed because of the time, and headed over to see the Bath Abbey. This was a nice break for me. See they have all these things called pews, and I sat right down to rest my now weary feet. I no longer had Philip yanking on my arm to get away - another break for my weary arm! There was hardly anyone in there, and the people were very laid back, so I let Philip roam around. Well, after getting the obligatory pictures of the interior (finally, a place that actually ALLOWED pictures inside), we went in search of some dinner. By this time, it was raining a bit, so in the interest of not getting too wet walking around to peruse the restaurant choices, we zipped right in to Pizza Hut. Then it was a short walk back to the car park and a short drive here to our hotel.

(inside Bath Abbey - beautiful fan ceilings)

Wentworth House is a very large old house - now obviously converted into a hotel of sorts. We have a very reasonable family room here for the night and are looking forward to a hearty breakfast in the morning.

Burghley House

House - they call this a house?

So today, Bill and I dropped all children off at school and then hopped in the rental car to go visit Burghley House. It's located in Stamford which is very nearby - takes about 35 minutes to go the 20 miles or so. This house was built by William Cecil who was Elizabeth I's State Advisor. Since then it has been the Cecil's family home and still is. They have opened it to the public (as many castles and so forth are) to pay for the exorbitant taxes and repairs/upkeep of the place. Recently, it was used as the set for the new Pride and Prejudice movie.

Inside, you tour through a wing of guestrooms - the beds look like this. Every room is chock full of art. Aparantly a few different Earls and Marquesses throughout their history took it upon themselves to tour Europe collecting vast amounts of valuable art and other furniture and various treasures. Some were sold off years ago to pay for upkeep of the place before they got the brilliant idea to open it to the public. But there remain enough to occupy you for hours touring through the house.

You can't completely tell in this picture, but this house has a lot of painting on the walls and ceilings. Room after room is painted - ceilings and walls with various legends. If a room is not painted on the ceilings and walls, then pictures hang on every wall.

Every piece of furniture seems to be a treasure in itself. There are all sorts of beautifully veneered woods like this table, gold overlay, and the fireplaces are made of solid silver. Some rooms have beautiful tapestry on the walls instead of paintings. The Great Hall houses the library and has over 3000 volumes of pricelessly old stuff.

After going through the rooms open to the public, we went out to the Garden of Surprises. This would be a great fun place for kids in the summer - it's like a water garden with all sorts of water features that you could get completely soaked in if you so desired. It also contains some quirky things like a maze of mirrors, and modern sculptures. Exiting out of that we took a short walk through the Sculptured Garden. This is a tree/schrub/bushes type garden with various meandering paths and a lake. Scattered throughout are all sorts of modern art sculptures.

We were pretty hungry by this time, so keeping a close eye on the time, we went back into the House grounds to the Orangery Restaurant for a late lunch. We ordered one beef and wild game casserole and one steak and kidney pie to share between us - just to keep with the authentic British experience, and they were both very tasty. Then it was a short trip home to pick up the kids from school and get ready for church.

Moving in to the Rental House

The much awaited day had arrived! Friday night (Sep 26th) we packed as much of our clothing as we could in preparation for our Saturday move. Saturday, we caught an early bus up to High Street where the rental agent's offices were located, and we signed all the necessary papers and handed in a sizable chunk of money in exchange for the keys to our new rental. We then took the bus back to the bungalow and had some lunch. Bill was able to borrow one of the school's maintainance vehicles to move our stuff over to the house, so he went and got that. What we had to move at this point was all our clothes in luggage that we had brought, plus the things we had bought in preparation to go into a house. This included the Yamaha Clavinova (ebay purchase), some bookcases, a TV, and some other household items purchased from a missionary who was returning to the USA. We spent the next few hours taking trips back and forth to bring the stuff. Fortunately, our new home was just up the road - about half a mile or so.

(picture from our entrance door facing into lounge and back garden)

(kitchen - facing front to road)

After a few weary hours of moving stuff and simultaneously trying to clean the bungalow we were leaving, we made a quick run to the grocery store for supplies and a ready-made meal, then headed home. We tried to unpack as much clothing as possible - onto the floors - so we could at least access it the next day, and then got our beds ready. The church members were kind enough to give us zed beds (like a cot) and bedding for the children, some pots and knives for basic cooking, some chairs from the church for sitting on, and things like that to get us through the week until Friday when our container of stuff was being delivered. Bill's Dep Head also dropped by a small round table on Sunday that he didn't want anymore. Bill and I used a horrible air mattress that we had purchased cheaply for the week. So all in all, we ended up having enough stuff to get us through the week.

(view of lounge into back garden)

(our luggage unloaded into the master bedroom)

The house we have chosen to live in here in Corby is a town house - attached to four others. There is a courtyard area with garages for each house - we have our own garage that I am not sure would actually fit a car but is still very useful for storing stuff. I don't think I have actually seen anyone else try to fit their car in the garage either - they all park outside! The house is narrow and tall - about 16 feet in width, but going up three stories. We chose this house for several reasons - the bedrooms are very big by UK standards and were much bigger than in any other home I viewed. The faucets in the kids' bathroom and our bathroom are both mixed - most sinks here have separate taps, which I personally dislike, as you either freeze or burn your hands when washing. The kitchen came with a fridge and dishwasher already - here in the UK, rentals consider appliances as furniture and you usually have to provide them yourself! (I did have to purchase a washer and dryer) The back "garden", although narrow, is very beautifully shrubbed in a rock garden - very low maintainance - (this is a good thing) - and has a patio area. The other big draw for this particular house was the fourth bedroom - a very large room that could also be used as a family room; we are using this as a playroom for the kids and that is reason enough to have this house! So although we have had to cut back on space somewhat, I think we have plenty enough in this town house to be quite comfortable.

(view of sheep farm and pasture across the street from front of house; they are currently putting in a large lawn area right across the street just before the sheep pasture)

(the back garden)

Friday, Oct 3rd arrived, and soon the shipping container and the movers arrived. It was a long day of getting everything into the house and put in the correct room. Once the movers had left, I began some organizing efforts that Bill helped with when he got home from school. Later in the evening, Pastor Pavitt, Pastor Tooley, and two Crown College kids came over to move a few things up to the third floor - which was very kind of them. We ended up finding all the bedding for our beds and got them all set up just in time to wearily fall into them that night. There were three small problems we encountered during all of this. The first was that my triple dresser just absolutely would not fit up the stairs. The movers tried, and then we tried later, but there was no way. After being initially depressed : ) I decided to roll with the punches, and my dresser is now our hifi center for the TV. Second, Bill's chest of drawers (matching my dresser) fit up the first set of stairs, but it would not go up the second to our bedroom (master suite is on top floor). So he ended up putting it in Abby's room. Third, we put on our much loved heated mattress pad, and then read that the Watts are 360! Yikes! We had not had time to check this before we left so we had no idea how much we would need to convert. I had some 100W converters, but obviously they weren't going to do the job. Anyway, all that aside, we were overjoyed to get back into our very own talalay latex foam bed and all our soft and wonderful bedding! Every single night, I am thankful for that bed!!!!!

Saturday, Bill rented a minivan and went to pick up our two other ebay purchases. First was a dining room table with six chairs that we purchased for 50 pounds. We really got a fantastic deal with this set - the table is very large oval and additionally has a large leaf to extend it out. It is solid mahogony and is beautiful. The chairs are sage green and also solid mahogony and very attractive and comfortable. I love the set! The other purchase was a table with four chairs and a matching sideboard. The table is square, but has extensions that you pull out from under the table top and they slide into place on either side. They can then just as easily be slid back underneath. The sideboard is high, with nice storage compartments. We purchased this set for the playroom - for a game table and storage for all the games for 100 pounds. This set is a 1930's style and is also solid hardwood and in great shape. Yay ebay!

The following week was spent organizing stuff into places in the house and purchasing all the little things that you need to start off a household. We worked pretty hard though and had it mostly done going into the weekend. Then Bill was off from school (for a two week holiday) and helped me finish up the rest on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

We still have a few things that we need to purchase, but we ought to be able to get all that done early this week. There are of course some mundane things to be done in setting up household accounts etc, but we anticipate that this week we will have time for some sight-seeing by Wednesday or Thursday. Then I will hopefully have something much more interesting to blog about.